Book picks similar to
The Term Sheet by Lucas Carlson


thriller
mystery
fiction
action-adventure

Agent of Influence


Russell Hamilton - 2009
    Born in Cairo, Egypt, he is orphaned before moving to the United States with his adopted father, where he lives the American Dream. He goes to Yale and is elected to be the Congressman from Nevada in his early 20s. In 1994, he leads a movement to amend the constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to be elected to the Presidency of the United States. Ten years later, he reaches the zenith of his power as the new President-Elect. But Hardin has a dark side to his personality, and the FBI's vetting process for candidates is running into a wall. As the election heats up, CIA agent Anna Starks is sent to Cairo to try to dig into candidate Hardin's childhood. As the transition of power begins, defeated President Allan Gray, concerned with what the information on Hardin's childhood means, authorizes a secret mission to Las Vegas. To aid with this secret mission, Anna enlists the help of new CIA recruit Alex Bryce. Agent of Influence takes the two CIA agents through Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Cairo, Louisville, and Washington, D.C. as they race against time to piece together the President-Elect's sinister past before it is too late. What they find could alter the landscape of the United States forever.

Deadly Offerings


Alexa Grace - 2011
    It is the first adventure in this sizzling romantic suspense trilogy.Anne Mason thinks she’ll be safe living in the Midwest building a wind farm. She may be dead wrong. Someone is dumping bodies in her corn field and telling Anne they are gifts—for her!As the body count rises, Anne realizes a cold-blooded serial killer is patiently waiting and watching her every move. And he won’t stop until he ends her life. It is clear there are no limits to this killer’s thirst for revenge or how far he will go to get it.After a nasty divorce, Anne Mason does not want to get romantically involved, especially with ex-husband’s attorney, Michael Brandt.The ruggedly handsome new County Prosecutor is the last person Anne can trust, but may offer her only chance at survival from a psychopathic killer. But will she survive the passion that rages between them?

Back on Murder


J. Mark Bertrand - 2010
    Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out. But when he's the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he's given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he's transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlight--the disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist's teen daughter. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he's still one of Houston's best detectives.

The Other Pilot


Ed Baldwin - 2012
    General Trusten Polk dies in an exploding F-16 in Denver, and within hours he's exposed as an impostor; a war hero politician controlled by others. Boyd finds another pilot from Polk's past is releasing secrets to the press.Congressman Roscoe Kelly is implicated in bank fraud and other politicians with ties to Polk duck and weave. The press smells blood and political corruption dominates the news cycle. Is The Other Pilot a patriot or a criminal? Where did all that money come from?Boyd races to find The Other Pilot, as signs point to a criminal mastermind with a lust for revenge.The spark to start civil war in America is on a ranch in west Texas. Boyd, his English teacher lover, flight surgeon pal, a vintage aircraft enthusiast with a P-51 Mustang, and a small town sheriff are the nation's last line of defense.

Consequential Damages


Joseph Hayes - 2013
    Rick is a brilliant, ultracompetitive trial lawyer who believes winning is everything. He openly mocks the legal system, claiming that a lawyer who is a great storyteller can fool a jury every time. He is determined to exploit that weakness in our system, regardless of the havoc that wreaks on innocent lives. When an upstanding pillar of the community is victimized by Rick’s unscrupulous tactics, Jake is determined to bring his former classmate to justice—if he can do so without sacrificing his own integrity. Their approaches, skills and convictions are put to the test when they clash as opposing counsel in a high-stakes class action lawsuit. Dirty tricks, intimidation, intrigue—even homicide—become part of the backdrop as the litigation unfolds. Consequential Damages is a compelling legal drama full of twists, turns and suspense. And, it will make you think!

These Toxic Things


Rachel Howzell Hall - 2021
    When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain―twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country.But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone.It’s becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own.

The Thinnest Air


Minka Kent - 2018
    Her husband, Andrew, is a charming and successful financial broker. She has two lovely stepchildren and is living in affluence in a mountain resort town. After three years of marriage, Meredith’s life has become predictable. Until the day she disappears.Her car has been discovered in a grocery store parking lot—purse and phone undisturbed on the passenger seat, keys in the ignition, no sign of struggle, and no evidence of foul play. It’s as if she vanished into thin air.It’s not like Meredith to simply abandon her loved ones. And no one in this town would have reason to harm her. When her desperate sister, Greer, arrives, she must face a disturbing question: What if no one really knows Meredith at all? For Greer, finding her sister isn’t going to be easy…because where she’s looking is going to get very, very dark.

Either Side of Midnight


Tori de Clare - 2013
    I rate this book as a ten-star and expect to see it as number one on the best selling list for many, many weeks.” Reviewed by Trudi LoPreto for Readers'Favorite.WHAT IF THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE TURNED INTO YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE?When nineteen-year-old Naomi Stone is snatched from her husband at knifepoint on the night of their wedding and taken to a deserted cemetery, she knows her life is finished. Drugged and disorientated, she loses consciousness as she lies in an open grave with a gun to her head. But the following day, she mysteriously awakes to find herself unharmed and secured to a bed. She's in a beautiful bedroom in a secluded cottage in open countryside. Only one person knows she’s there – the man in the balaclava who’s holding her, feeding her, revealing nothing. Naomi senses the unfolding of a plan. She should be on honeymoon in the Caribbean. Instead, she’s trapped with an emotionless psycho with no hope of escape . . . And his voice is chillingly familiar.Who is he? What does he want? What's happened to her husband? Where is she? Will anyone find her before it's too late?

Severance Kill


Tim Stevens - 2012
    First he has to rescue him.Calvary works for The Chapel, a branch of British Intelligence that identifies enemies of the state who are beyond the reach of the law, and eliminates them. Permanently. But Calvary has had enough of the killing and wants out. His employers make him an offer: if he carries out one more assassination, he’s free to leave. If he refuses, evidence of his involvement in all the previous killings will be passed on to the police and he’ll become a wanted criminal facing life in prison.Trapped, Calvary travels to Prague to carry out the hit. The target is Sir Ivor Gaines, a retired senior British diplomat and Cold War traitor who escaped justice more than twenty years ago. But Calvary discovers he’s not the only one with an interest in Gaines. Also hunting him are the city’s gangland boss, and the local branch of the successor organisation to the Soviet KGB…Calvary’s hit on Gaines fails, and he’s plunged into a race against time to locate and terminate the man before either Prague’s premier organised crime family or the Russians discover just why Gaines is so important, and what the explosive repercussions would be were he to be taken to Moscow. Haunted by the memory of a terrible error he made five years ago, Calvary must track down Gaines to achieve severance not only from his job, but from his past itself.

The Light Through the Leaves


Glendy Vanderah - 2021
    But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone.In a remote area of Washington, a young girl named Raven keeps secrets inside, too. She must never speak to outsiders about how her mother makes miracles spring from the earth, or about her father, whose mysterious presence sometimes frightens her. Raven spends her days learning how to use her rare gifts—and more important, how to hide them. With each lesson comes a warning of what dangers lie in the world beyond her isolated haven. But despite her mother’s cautions, Raven finds herself longing for something more.As Ellis and Raven each confront their powerful longings, their journeys will converge in unexpected and hopeful ways, pulled together by the forces of nature, love, and family.

Purified


Brian Robert Smith - 2013
    You’re miles from anywhere. You have no clothes, no food, no money... You’re dead, Mason.”As far as everyone else is concerned, Mason Bushing died over a year ago, but now he’s running from Dr. Harlow who is secretly conducting an unauthorized experiment for a drug he calls Purify. It saved Mason’s life, but Mason is focused on getting what he wants most—his old life back. His plans change when he realizes his wife is more interested in the insurance money she inherited than seeing him alive. His best friend doesn’t believe his story, and the police intend on charging him with fraud and assault after he almost kills his wife’s boyfriend.Warren is a detective who’s assigned the case. He’s been on personal leave because his wife died. His investigation turns up suspicions of lying, disturbing coincidences, and related homicides.When Mason becomes the prime suspect, he’s forced to run again.Imagine having to run from someone who saved your life. Imagine everyone thinking you’re dead, but you’re really alive. Questions, accusations, conspiracies… murder. What if this was all caused by a drug that’s creating the next physical evolution of man? What would you do if you were Purified?

Killing Ruby Rose


Jessie Humphries - 2014
    But ever since her dad, an LAPD SWAT sergeant, died, she's also got a few killer secrets.To cope, Ruby has been trying to stay focused on school (the top spot in her class is on the line) and spending time with friends (her Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are nothing if not loyal). But after six months of therapy and pathetic parenting by her mom, the District Attorney, Ruby decides to pick up where her dad left off and starts going after the bad guys herself.When Ruby ends up killing a murderer to save his intended victim, she discovers that she's gone from being the huntress to the hunted. There's a sick mastermind at play, and he has Ruby in his sights. Ruby must discover who's using her to implement twisted justice before she ends up swapping Valentino red for prison orange.With a gun named Smith, a talent for martial arts, and a boyfriend with eyes to die for, Ruby is ready to face the worst. And if a girl's forced to kill, won't the guilt sit more easily in a pair of Prada peep-toe pumps?

True Fiction


Lee Goldberg - 2018
    Now one of those schemes has come true, and Ian is the only person alive who knows how it was done...and who is behind the plot. That makes him too dangerous to live.Ian goes on the run, sweeping up an innocent bystander in his plight--Margo French, a dog walker and aspiring singer. They are pursued by assassins and an all-seeing global-intelligence network that won't stop until Ian and Margo are dead. Ian has written thrillers like this before, but this time he doesn't know how it's going to end--or if he will be alive to find out.

The Moonlight Child


Karen McQuestion - 2020
    Through her neighbor's kitchen window, she sees what appears to be a little girl washing dishes late at night. But the Fleming family doesn't have a child that age, and even if they did, why would she be doing housework at this late hour?It would be easy for Sharon to just let this go, but when eighteen-year-old Niki, a former foster child, comes to live with Sharon, she notices suspicious activity at the Flemings' house as well. When calling social services doesn't result in swift action, the two decide to investigate on their own.

The Reach of the Banyan Tree


Mark W. Sasse - 2014
    As he struggles to cope with their strained love, a mysterious stranger appears, bearing a journal about Chip’s grandfather who parachuted into French Indochina at the end of World War II. As the words of the journal reveal a life that Chip never knew, he begins to understand the depth of love and sacrifice needed in order to have a second chance with Thuy. Part historical fiction, part contemporary love story, The Reach of the Banyan Tree explores the effects of war, love, culture, and family obligation in twentieth century Vietnam through the eyes of three generations of American men, who each lost their soul in the tangled reach of the banyan tree.